Workshop on Constitutive Relations for Coseismic Slip

This will be a one-day workshop to bring together and foster collaboration between the Fault and Rock Mechanics (FARM) community and those who have historically identified themselves with the Earthquake Source Physics Focus Area. The purpose is to focus on a particularly important subject for both groups, the constitutive description of fault resistance that is used in dynamic rupture models. This is the principal product that FARM hopes to provide for understanding fault and earthquake mechanics and it is a fundamental input needed to construct dynamic rather than kinematic models of rupture. Such rupture models would ideally be the input for wave propagation models used to predict strong ground motions, but at present kinematic models are typically used. Part of the workshops goal is to consider how much difference the details of the constitutive description make to dynamic rupture behavior. If the details are unimportant, then their determination by the FARM community is not necessary for SCEC and current codes for dynamic rupture models may be adequate. However, if the details are important then both groups have much work to do. Attendees at the workshop should be scientists working in the disciplines of seismology, fault mechanics and rock mechanics with an interest in earthquake source physics and rupture modeling. The agenda will involve considerable time for in-depth discussion and very few speakers. Attendees are welcome to bring posters, but it is not required.